What makes a villain?
Greetings Dear Readers!
Today on the Blacksteel Discord Phil, Dustin and I had a lengthy conversation about what makes a villain. We have done some writing activities like “story-a-day”, “world-building-a-day”, and now we are trying out “villain-a-day”.
Writing bad guys is something I struggle with. You can’t always just have great big monolithic evils that are evil for the sake of being evil. (I’m looking at you Arzinock.) Most villains are going to be individuals with their own ideas and motives. And yes, sometimes people are just sociopaths and there is no rhyme or reason to the way they behave. But every villain can’t be the Joker.
BUT. I think that more nuanced villains are much more interesting to read about.
We talked a lot about whether thoughts follow actions or actions follow thoughts. Ultimately it can go both ways, but we also discussed that often times that cycle of thoughts and actions creates a negative feedback loop. I’ve read a decent amount of work by Rory Miller who talks about the criminal mind and asocial violence. Criminals use violence because it works. In this sense, a fiction world wouldn’t be much different from ours.
If I am a criminal, and you have something that I want, and I want it bad enough, then I can justify to myself any action I take to get that thing from you. I could threaten you, and if that doesn’t work I could attack you physically. By and large most people will shy away from physical violence. So if I hit you hard enough and enough times I’ll either knock you out or you’ll likely give in and give me what I want, with limited exception. Violence has gotten me what I want. So next time I’ll resort to it quicker, knowing it will be effective. This cycle will continue until someone puts a stop to it.
The difference is, in a fantasy setting, these things may go unchecked for a lot longer, or villains may have access to resources that they don’t here in reality, such as magic, which up both the stakes and rewards.
I’m keeping this fairly surface-level, but you get the idea. I’m bigger, or meaner, or stronger, or more willing to hurt you than you are willing to hurt me, so if I want something I’m going to take it, and your normal NPC can’t or won’t do much about it. Farmers generally aren’t trained to fight.
Ultimately what it boils down to is ‘want’. How badly does the villain want something and what lengths are they willing to go? As they say, variety is the spice of life. If you’re writing multiple stories or if you’re making villains for your tabletop players, be sure to give different villains different motives. Phil suggested starting along the lines of the seven deadly sins for inspiration. Does your villain want wealth? (Greed) What about revenge? (Wrath) Do they want to show up their rival and humiliate and embarrass them? (Pride). Is there a man or a woman that they would stop at nothing to win the affection of? (Lust) and so on.
So that gives your villain some motive, but I love characters that are well developed, with depth and who are multi-dimensional. Villains that have motives and desires that connect with us on a deep fundamental level. Wanting to belong, wanting to be loved, wanting to protect someone, wanting to make the world a better place. Villains that almost make us root for them are the best/worst kind. Villains who you can relate with, which makes it all the more devastating when they cross over the edge and fully commit to their dark path.
How do we give our villains depth? What drives people to cruelty and malice?
What I think makes a particularly compelling/interesting villain is one whose intentions start out good and noble, but spiral out of control due to what they encounter on their journey. Viktor from season 1 of Arcane is a supreme example of how this could play out. While I wouldn’t consider Viktor a villain (yet), his character arc could easily end there. If you haven’t seen Arcane, do yourself a favor and go watch it. I cannot recommend it highly enough, the writing is absolutely suburb.
Another way to spin this type of compelling villain is to make them a tragic villain. Rather than someone who is just out to selfishly take whatever he wants, he has a very relatable reasoning for behaving as callously and cruelly as he does. In a nutshell, you could frame Magneto’s motivation as such “My family were murdered for being 'different' - I won't allow my new family to be murdered for being different, and I will kill people to protect them."
Yet another way to add a bit of sympathy to your villain is to show them as having been isolated or ostracized from their community. People want to belong. We all know what it’s like to feel left out and neglected. You feel used, abused, and misunderstood long enough and resentment starts to fester. Worse, if people are cruel it just adds fuel to the fire. As the saying goes, you kick a dog enough times and it’ll turn mean. People can forget the love in their hearts, and become calloused.
Last on my list are villains who behave the way they do because they feel they have no choice. They’ve been backed into a corner and they have no other options. Or at least they believe they have no other options. A good example of this would be Dr. Yueh from Dune. Baron Harkkonen was holding his wife, hostage, and Yueh felt he had no choice but to betray the Atreides to save his wife.
So to sum it up: a villain is usually someone who lacks that little voice in their head that says “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t do that because it might hurt someone.”
Most people operate under "I want X, but I won't take action beyond Y to get it."
Your villain is not morally limited, so he says " I want X, and I want it so bad that I can lie/steal/cheat/murder/rape/usurp in order to get it." People can perform all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify any action to themselves, all villains are the heroes of their own story.
As a side note, Dustin made a comment about Tigraen during our discussion which I thought was interesting. “IMHO part of what makes Tigraen compelling is that they will go beyond Y to protect their people - but not Z. Pushing past the normal limits makes them frightening good guys because it's not always clear where 'Z' is in the stories. What will the Interrogers or the Tyrant stop at?” (This is part of why I like writing in Tigraen, it’s very nuanced and it’s not as black and white as it first appears.) Phil replied that he doesn’t view Interrogers as good guys at all but as villains in their own right. Interesting food for thought, that.
Well, this has gone on long enough and it is time for me to say farewell for now. I hope this was informative and gave you something to consider when writing your next villain. Till next time dear reader… remember not to lie, cheat, steal, murder, or rape to get what you want in life. Take care of your fellow humans and be kind. The world needs a little more kindness these days. <3 Tiff
